What does US Confucius Institute move mean for Chinese soft power in Asia?

The institute’s problems go beyond the US, which has branded them ‘foreign missions’. They are also under scrutiny in Australia, India and beyond

Has Washington muddled up the difference between a sinister soft-power push and teaching students how to say ‘I’d like to go shopping’ in Chinese?

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Students at a Confucius Institute in Vladivostok, Russia. Photo: Getty Images

Published: 10:30am, 23 Aug 2020Updated: 5:57pm, 26 Aug 2020

Corrected [1:15pm, 23 Aug, 2020]

[1:15pm, 23 Aug, 2020]
This article has been updated to amend the name of an interviewee at their request, and to clarify that the US law relating to Confucius Institutes was passed in 2018.

As part of a widening rift between the United States and China, Washington has designated Confucius Institutes in the US as foreign missions.

The US said that the institutes, which offer language and cultural programmes overseas, usually in partnership with schools or colleges, were “owned and effectively controlled” by a foreign government.

Announcing the move, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused them of “advancing Beijing’s global propaganda and malign influence campaign” in American classrooms and on campuses.

In response, China said the US measures had “demonised and stigmatised” the operators of what were essentially cooperative educational projects.

WHAT ARE THEY?

First set up in 2004 in South Korea, Confucius Institutes are aimed at promoting Chinese language and culture around the world. By the end of last year, there were 541 Confucius Institutes in 162 countries, alongside 1,193 Confucius classrooms in elementary and secondary schools.

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